The chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland, Eilish Hardiman, has said that no child will be left waiting longer than four months for surgery thanks to new funding for the treatment of scoliosis and spina bifida.
The €19 million funding, announced by the Minister for Health on Thursday, was very welcome, Ms Hardiman told RTÉ radio’s News at One.
The funding will mean 24 new beds in Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals, two new MRI scanners, a new operating theatre in Temple Street and five extra days of surgery along with additional outpatient clinics and increased capacity at Cappagh Hospital.
Ms Hardiman said she understood that the parents of sick children would say that the proof was in action not words, Children’s Health Ireland was committed to this plan.
Previous efforts to reduce waiting lists in 2018 had been successful when they had been reduced by one third in one year. Prior to the pandemic there had been 147 children on waiting lists of whom 70 per cent had been seen in under four months.
The funding that has just been provided can address the lack of access to operating theatres, she said, and the extra beds will also help with the throughput of patients.
There are 224 children on the scoliosis waiting list, she said, 50 per cent of whom would be seen within four months. Capacity had dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid and the cyberattack on the HSE.
Ms Hardiman said that by the end of this year no child would be waiting longer than four months unless it was deemed clinically necessary to do so.
“We want to make inroads on the scoliosis waiting lists.”
Recruiting staff was not a problem, she said. Twenty new specialist paediatric orthopaedic nurses had been recruited, 12 of whom started work in January and eight more would commence in the coming months.
Staff were very committed to the work they do, she said. It was very frustrating for families, for children and for staff when they did not have the facilities to carry out operations which was why the funding was welcome, she said.
